Different places, different people

Photo of people in St. Stephen’s Green – a public park in Dublin

Foto: © Liz Leyden/iStockphotos

Different places, different people

Nora grew up in Dublin, but lives in Norway now. She talked to Lindis, who grew up in England, about some differences she has noticed between Irish, English and Norwegian people.

Before you listen

When you are listening to someone speaking in English, you may not understand every word. That does not always matter. Try to listen out for the basic ideas – the gist. Forget about the details. A handy hint for when you are listening: People stress what they think is important, and often they say these things more than once.

First, listen once. What is the gist of what she is saying?

Nora: English people … tend to like Irish people, I think. But I think that’s because they find us very friendly and open and … inquisitive perhaps. We do have a shared cultural heritage, but we also have the sort of, the Celtic bit in addition. And erm … I think that makes us very fond of talking, very fond of telling stories. We, we like to make friends, we like to meet new people, we like to get together and have good company and talk. Talking is very important to us.

And we have this thing called craic, which you spell C R A I C. And craic is something you cannot … see, you cannot touch, but it’s something you can feel, it’s an atmosphere. And we’d say something like, “Oh, I went over to Mary’s house last night and we had great craic!” And then everybody knows that you sat at Mary’s house and you sat around the table or maybe in the sofa and you had a cup of tea or you had a glass of wine or something and you talked about everything! Family, politics, the world, the environment, the dog … There’s great cut and thrust in a conversation between Irish people. Everybody talks and tries to get a word in, and one idea takes another and …

Lindis: Do you think there is more what you call cut and thrust, sort of interrupting, – is there more of that in Ireland than say in Norway or England?

Nora: Well, I think perhaps we think of English people as being slightly more polite and definitely I know in Norway everybody waits their turn to speak, there’s no chance to interrupt anybody or say something in the middle of a conversation. At least, I feel that anyway. So I think maybe the English and the Norwegians are more correct, more polite … than the Irish who are a bit spontaneous and who, you know, don’t wait to be asked, but just put in their “spake”, as we say.

Lindis: Did you say “spake”?

Nora: Spake.

Lindis: What, what’s that?

Nora: If you put in your spake – it’s a corruption of the word speak, I think – so if you put in your spake, it means you see wh-, er you say what you’ve got to say without waiting to be asked, without, you know, waiting for a break in the conversation or anything. You’ve just got to say something. It’s so important that you just have to say it.

Part 1: We love talking!

Now do Part 1: Getting the gist.

Before you listen

You have been invited to a friend’s house for dinner at 7 pm. What time should you arrive? Write down your answer, then listen to Nora and Lindis.

Lindis: I’ve heard that people in Ireland feel a little bit different about time than we do in England. Is that right?

Nora: Well, erm, there’s a saying that “When God made time, he made plenty of it – so what’s your hurry?” And erm, in Ireland we have a rather loose attitude to time, at least to social time. Probably in business, people do turn up to meetings more or less at the time they’re supposed to turn up. But in … a social setting if you invite somebody for er, dinner for example, and you say seven for half past seven, meaning that nobody should arrive before half past seven at the earliest, because the host and hostess will not be ready.

Lindis: They won’t be ready?

Nora: No! So we have a very loose attitude to that. Erm … I’ve been caught by that in Norway because in Norway people are so precise that erm … I have all the clocks in the house, all my watches, even the clocks in the car, set five minutes fast to make sure that I am always on time!

Part 2: When God made time, he made plenty of it!

Now do Part 2: Getting the gist and Part 2: Your turn to talk.

Crossroads

Different places, different people